Alabama

The conservative conscience

John Meredith, of Huntsville, is a former Capitol Hill lobbyist who was recognized as one of the country's 100 most influential Black Republicans.

Democrats in Alabama and across the nation are giddy.

The recent Alabama Senate election results show their party can easily win many urban and suburban districts. All they need to win is a motivated base.

But even with a motivated base, this will be difficult if upcoming election cycles mirror recent history. Unfortunately, in many state, county and local races, the Democratic party has failed to provide voters a candidate to vote for.

John Meredith is a contributing columnist for AL.com (Contributed photo)John Meredith

Jones' defeat of Moore shows a Democrat can also win statewide. Aside from motivating the base, any Democrat will have to earn GOP crossover votes to win. In the short term, those votes will come from conservatives.

If the GOP primary had produced a conservative candidate instead of a disgraced populist judge, reasonable Republicans would not have considered casting write-in ballots. They would have voted for the party's candidate and the tens-of-thousands of those votes would have been enough to elect the Republican candidate, despite a tremendous show of support by the Democratic base.

However, the party must end its courtship with populist ideologues. Ideological candidates and policies increasingly neglectful of America's wage workers have tainted the Republican brand.

No longer can our party be associated with electing candidates so vile they assault reporters for asking them about the issues at campaign events, Greg Gianforte (R-Montana), or stand credibly accused of child molestation.

Populist sentiment may now be a Republican value but it will never be one of a conservative. Conservatives care about people, regardless of the color of their skin. We want a level playing field for all to pursue the American Dream. We believe an elected official is a servant to his constituents and their rights and needs come before those of Party or even the official themself.

Then we must end our practice of political trickery. Our desire to win has resulted in the Republican party corrupting our political process in a number of ways.

We eliminated competition for legislative seats through gerrymandering. We have suppressed minority voting through questionable voter identification laws. And we have altered Congressional procedures in order to accommodate a shrinking GOP majority.

Arguably, our most nefarious political trick was to deny President Obama his Constitutional right to replace Justice Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Racial, gender and now age demographics are all polling positive toward the Democratic Party. They win generic ballots by double digits most everywhere.

Polling among millennials is so poor, Republicans may have lost this generation forever. Women poll better than millennials regarding the GOP. However, they also trend Democratic and gap is only expected to widen as #metoo grows.

Ironically, minority populations represent the most efficient growth prospects for future GOP growth. Asian Americans have a long history of supporting conservatives.

Despite being an immigration scapegoat, Latinos are still willing to vote Republican in large numbers. Blacks left the GOP in droves when the party opened the Big Tent to Dixiecrats but generations of indifference to their issues by Democrats have made them ripe for the conservative message.

The challenge for Republicans moving forward is to regain the moral authority. This can easily be achieved if the party begins to address the issue of income inequality. We can be pro-business without harming people. And we can honor one's heritage without disrespecting someone else's.

If the Republican party continues to disregard the truth, pass laws crafted in secret and held in contempt by the American people, our future will be filled with more and more giddy Democrats.